An apology for Mexican Hobo Stew, via Carnitas.

The other night I was rummaging through the refrigerator looking for something to cook. I came up with turnips, chipotles, pork drippings, sausage, onions, green chili peppers, and cilantro. While independent of each other these ingredients are delicious, combined they make a very strange kind of hobo stew. As an apology for having thrown something together like that, I have for you my recipe for carnitas.

What you need, based on a 3# pork roast; though carnitas are usually made with a much larger roasts 6-10#

-crockpot
-jelly roll pan or roaster pan
-3# pork roast; boston butt, picnic roast, etc.
-1 medium white onion, chopped
-1 bay leaf
-2 tsp. ground cumin
-2 tsp. ground coriander
-1 tsp. dried oregano
-2 cups water

I prefer to toast and grind my own cumin and coriander. If you have a mortar and pestle, you can too. Place the cumin and coriander in a dry skillet and toast over high heat until the spices start to smell fragrant and smoke a little bit. Transfer the spices to the mortar and grind them to medium fine with the pestle. If you don't have a mortar and pestle, you can use a spice grinder, a coffee grinder (don't use it for coffee afterward!), or you can just buy pre-ground spices off the rack.

Combine ingredients in crockpot set to "high" and leave to cook overnight. You may need to get up during the night and turn the roast over once. It depends on whether your crockpot is the roaster-pan type or the soup-pot type. In the morning, lift the roast out of the crockpot and transfer to a jelly roll pan or baking dish large enough to spread the soon-to-be-shredded roast out on. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. While the oven heats up, shred the roast and spread it out evenly in the pan.

Place the pan in the oven and bake for 15-30 minutes. How long you bake it will determine how crispy the meat gets. Your personal tastes will determine doneness.

Eat! Carnitas are usually served as a plate or in tacos with pico de gallo-- a rough dice of equal parts white onion & tomato with a few jalapenos, cilantro, and lime juice-- red or green salsa, pickled carrots or radishes, guacamole, and lime.

Back on track.

Today marked the first time in two weeks that I've made it to the gym at my usual 530 time. Between working and teaching and trying to get some sleep it just hasn't fit in. And I've lost about 10 pounds thanks to all that. So here's to being back at it and getting some weight put back on!

The KFC Doubledown smackdown.

Despite my usual dietary-reservedness, my brother offered to expense some doubledown sandwiches as "travel, dining, and entertainment." I drove to KFC, bought us two EACH, and returned to work.

I've read reviews from critic after critic about how obscene this sandwich is. And it's not. It took the two of us, and mind you that COMBINED we weigh about 375, a total of five minutes to polish them BOTH off. Both of us, TWO EACH. We weren't starving, and afterward we weren't stuffed. Travel, yes. Dining, maybe. Entertainment, sure. But, it's just a damn sandwich, man. Minus the bread.

Score: Us 1, KFC 0

Hamm's, dog.

You have to hand it to banquet beers. You've got Coors, Hamm's, Olympia, High Life, Schlitz, Budweiser-- the beers your grandfather drank. And while I usually drink my own brand, or a New Belgium something-or-other, I have to tell you that last night Hamm's was good.

I made it to work by eight and spent the day with my brother building a round pen, throwing two pallets of horseshoes, two pallets of salt, mucking out a chicken pen, changing the marquee, and somehow having a decent sales day despite ourselves. By the time the old seven-pee-em rolled around, we decided it best to call it. I stopped by the store and picked up a couple of chickens (none in the freezer yet this year).

I threw them in a cast iron pot with some bacon grease, rosemary, thyme, and pepper, tossed that in the oven, and proceeded to sit barefoot on my lawn, drinking my Hamm's, watching the sun go down on a still night.

Teaching two nights this week. Will try and make it out to the shop tomorrow.

Me:1 Welder:0

Don't worry, I didn't leave it that way.

After all the trouble I went to to get my hands on an old Lincoln stick welder, when I went to plug it in I found a vintage 220 dryer outlet where I had expected a serviceable 220 welder outlet to be. I went to Lowe's, bought a receptacle (and a plug, just in case) and came back just in time for it to be dark out. To leave the lights on would have meant to leave the breaker on, and even I wouldn't do that.

Aside from having to break the rust off of some screws, the install went without a hitch and once I restored the power, was greeted with the familiar low hum of the old buzz box. One more project, down.

Hardware, restoration. Part I.

In the process of cleaning out the shop I discovered this sewing machine. It's a White Brand, from the early 1900's. As nearly as I can tell from asking around, it belonged to my great-grandmother. Even the contents of the drawers are exactly as she left them, as if she left one day and never came back. There are buttons, needles, thread, and even an old passport-size school photo of a distant relative.

I'm going to restore it- not because I have a need for a foot powered machine per se, though many of them are still in use in China. The technology is old, but it still works (kind of a theme here). I'm going to restore it because it will give me insight into historical construction methods, and help to develop my skill in fitting and finishing furniture and rebuilding vintage machinery.

I can't resist. Really.

Vinegar salad.

One of the hazards of not eating any grains --because they'll kill you-- or processed foods --because they'll kill you, too-- is that I do an awfully lot of cooking. This morning, I decided to throw together a salad so that I had something to go with the charcoal grilled steaks I had leftover from Sunday night. I settled on a vinegar salad. Vinegar salads are dead simple.

What you need:
A large cucumber
Ripe tomatoes- either sliced or small, whole
1/2 medium white onion
1/4 cup cold-pressed olive oil
White vinegar

Chop everything up. I like to peel the cucumber, and slice it into half rounds and the onion into thin slices. Add the 1/4 cup olive oil and enough vinegar to give the veggies a good soak. You can eat this immediately, though it's much better if left to chill for a few hours or overnight.

Or if you're the kind of person that understands the superiority of fine mustard as a condiment, you can do it like this:

Save the tomatoes and onions for another dish. Mix equal parts Dijon mustard, white vinegar, olive oil, and salt to taste. Toss cucumber slices in mustard mixture. Enjoy.

More on why I don't eat grain later. If you want a head start, read "The Primal Blueprint," "The Paleo Diet," and "The Vegetarian Myth" and articles that are readily available at Mark's Daily Apple. Forget 'Big Brother' - Big Ag is filling their pockets while killing you and turning the earth into a wasteland. Let's talk real change, real sustainability, and real health.

Your workout is my warmup.

This morning I woke up to the sound of cars passing in the rain. I wasn't going to get any more sleep, so I shook myself out of bed and headed down to Maltese Crossfit for the workout of the day (WOD).

I did 10 burpees, 10 pullups, 10 hanging knees-to-elbows, and 10 squats 3 times through. And then we actually worked out. Today's WOD went like this:

100' walking lunge
21 push up
21 sit up
100' walking lunge
18 push up
18 sit up
100' walking lunge
15 push up
15 sit up
100' walking lunge
12 push up
12 sit up
100' walking lunge
9 push up
9 sit up
100' walking lunge
6 push up
6 sit up

... for time.

It took me 08:57 and I was feeling the after-effects of yesterdays sprints and deadlifts. Yep. An eight minute workout. Crossfit prizes work capacity and functionality above all else. In short, you train in the gym to be good at life.

We run and jump and lift and climb and row. Our workouts draw from Olympic weightlifting, powerlifting, gymnastics, strongman, & track and field. And all of it is set against the clock.

I started Crossfit as an experiment last summer as the product of 10 years in the gym searching for better methodologies. I've trained as a bodybuilder, track athlete, powerlifter, martial artist, and strongman. I've used Zatiorsky's methods, Medvedyev's methods and read Siff and Rippetoe and Simmons. And in that time my weight has been as low as 168 and as high as 240. I now weigh 205 at 6'2" -- I deadlift over 440# and I completed a 50 mile marathon in 26th/50. I have never been stronger, faster, more flexible, or more endurant. And I do this in less than 30 minutes a day. I will never do anything else.

Crossfit is truth.

Going scaveng-- er... shopping.

This is not a 3rd world country.

Run by Luis, a Mexican who speaks perfect English with an Eastern european accent, Bob Jonak's place is akin an island that can only by found by people that already know where it is. Mythic in its size and diversity of scrap, it's over a square mile of agricultural-industrial graveyard. And it's where I get most of the steel that I need for my projects thats either unaffordable or unavailable due to its size, rarity, or (usually) obsolescence. It's a place for the repurposing of things and at Jonak's I can buy most anything for a song. 50' of lath fence? $5. 50 links of 1/2" tool steel digger chain? $0.25 per link. Bolts, wheels, gears, chain, wrought iron-- and I could never exhaust the supply.

I happened to snap a picture last time I was out, and now that my shop is back in commission I'll be headed out for more project materials soon.

--UPDATE--

Went out after my workout and found everything I needed for a project, save maybe a piece of spring steel for $10. How about that?

Rending lard & making chicharrones.

The finished product. As it solidifies, it will turn a nice white color.


I'm sure you're looking at this title saying to yourself, "Who the hell just renders some lard?" Well, I do. I cook a LOT and I don't want hydrogenated-anything in my cooking fat. And besides all that, hog fat is $0.20/ lb.

Rendering fat has been around for centuries and remains a reliable way to produce shelf-stable cooking fat or shortening. It's a great source of the RIGHT KIND of saturated and unsaturated fats-- read as, not hydrogenated and not TRANS-anything, and it tastes great. You can render it in water or in a dry pan. Water-rendered lard gives you a tremendously mild product, while pan-rendered can be a bit porky. Since I don't bake much (and vegetable shortening will KILL you), I use the dry pan method.

What you need:

Cast iron pan (I prefer cast iron for its heat-retention, but any pan will do)
A few pounds of hog back fat
'Lil bit of water
Sterilized wide mouth canning jars + lids
Butter muslin
Rubber bands, 1 per jar



Pork on the slab, and cubed.

You start with fat back pork. You can buy this from your local butcher-- I buy mine in slabs, skin on. If you can get it skinned or better yet, skinned & cubed you can save yourself some work.



The fat, mostly rendered.

Once I have it skinned & cut into smaller cubes, I put it in a cast iron pan on medium low heat with a few Tbsp. of water to keep it from burning. As the fat melts, you can gradually increase the heat some until you're at a medium-medium-hot. Eventually what you'll you have looks like the picture above-- some pieces of tasty golden brown fat pieces & a lot of liquid. When these are nice and crispy, they can be fished out and snacked on. Known as hog cracklings, chicharrones, or pork rinds they're delicious with a little bit of salt.



While all this is going on, you should have sterilized those jars and lids and placed butter muslin over the opening with rubber bands. This will filter the sediments (little burned bits) out of your lard. I like to let it cool a little bit and then transfer it into a 2 quart Pyrex measuring cup-- the kind with a pour spout. Using that, pour the lard VERY SLOWLY through the muslin. It won't flow quickly and you can get over-invested, so take your time.

When the jar's filled, twist the lid on tightly and refrigerate. While lard is shelf-stable and many a Grandmother has left a jar in the cupboard for whoever-knows-how-long, I err on the side of caution and refrigerate. It will keep in the refrigerator for months.

Enjoy!
B.

Shop, moved.

After an arduous weekend of pushing, pulling, and dragging equipment from Blackfoot, my shop is mostly reassembled.

Garden!

I managed to get the garden tilled today. It's about 50x30, and makes for a lot of work with a tiller that's 10" wide. I watered it and should be able to get my onions, turnips, beets, rutabagas, garlic, and hops this week.

Masculinity is creation.

"The act of creation shapes you as a man, refines your sensibilities, improves your strengths, hones your concentration, and builds your character. Passive consumption leaves you untouched and unchanged."

To be a man is to create more and to consume less. Often I have pondered the question of why I love the things that I do. The research, the details, the setbacks, the triumphs, the burning desire to make it better the next time. To try harder, fail better.

In Brett McKay's Article he talks at length about the composition of true masculinity and I agree with every word. Via Mathew B. Crawford:

“The activity of giving form to things seems to be increasingly the business of a collectivized mind, and from the standpoint of any particular individual, it feels like this forming has already taken place, somewhere else. In picking out your [Build-a-Bear's] features, or the options for your Warrior or Scion, you choose among predetermined alternatives. Each of these alternatives offers itself as good. A judgment of its goodness has already been made by some dimly grasped others, otherwise it wouldn’t be offered as an option in the catalogue. The consumer is disburdened not only of fabrication, but of a basic evaluative activity…The consumer is left with mere decision. Since this decision takes place in a playground-safe field of options, the only concern it elicits is personal preference. The watchword here is easiness as opposed to heedfulness. But because the field of options generated by market forces maps a collective consciousness, the consumer’s vaunted freedom within it might be understood as a tyranny of the majority that he has internalized. The market ideal of Choice by an autonomous Self seems to act as a kind of narcotic that makes the displacing of embodied agency go smoothly, or precludes the development of such agency by providing easier satisfactions. The growing dependence of individuals in fact is accompanied by ever more shrill invocations of freedom in theory, that is, in the ideology of consumerism. Paradoxically, we are narcissistic but not proud enough.”

The rest of the article is HERE.

Pollos.

Raising chickens for meat is simple. The ones here are a few days old. In three weeks they'll be the size of "Cornish game hens" and in another three weeks, they'll be the size of the roasters that you can buy at the grocery store. And for your trouble, at six weeks they'll have cost you about three bucks each.

"Isn't that what I pay for them at the store?" you say. I say, "Sure. But what are you buying?"

My chickens aren't given hormones or antibiotics or kept in cages the size of a shoebox. I know what they're eating and where they came from and how they were handled, slaughtered, and stored. And it's easy to do. Give it a try.

Cornish-cross chickens are a cross between a White Rock and a Dark Cornish. The result is a broad-breasted broiler-type chicken that reaches 3-4# in around 5 weeks and 5-7# around 8 weeks. They offer excellent feed conversion and, despite claims to the contrary, are quite easy to raise without health problems. For an individual that has the time and prefers a more traditional bird, there are a few dozen standardbreeds that will be table-ready in around 12 weeks. I like the Cornish because they're inexpensive to buy as chicks (about 99 cents) and because I like to load my freezer up a few times a year and the faster growing birds keep me from having to have so many at any one time.



Everything you need to get started, minus the brooder pen and chicks.

To get started you need a brooder lamp & bulb, a brooder, a feeder, a waterer, bedding material, and feed. You can use almost anything for a brooder for a half dozen birds- larger rubbermaid containers, a stock tank, or even a bathtub. For now, set the brooder lamp 20-30" from the floor to get a ground temp of about 95 degrees (a pet store thermometer may be helpful) and make sure that they have feed and clean water 24 hours a day. You'll need to change the bedding about once a week. Damp conditions can quickly cause disease in poultry.

In the case of Cornish-cross ONLY ALLOW THEM TO HAVE FOOD 12 HOURS PER DAY. Many people that lose a lot of Cornish to health problems lose them because they literally eat themselves beyond the carrying capacity of their bodies. By only feeding them 12 hours a day, you can largely eliminate those problems and end up with healthy, tasty birds.

After that first three weeks you can build a pasture-type enclosure, a chicken tractor, or a coop. I use a barn stall with chicken wire installed for security. What you're looking for is somewhere they'll have protection from the weather & predators, and have enough room to grow. Allowing a few square feet per bird is adequate. If you're growing standardbreeds, after six weeks or so you can turn them out on pasture. If you don't have predators around to bother them, they'll be fine to wander a bit and they'll eat every kind of bug within a hundred yards! If you garden, though, make sure and take a second to establish it as a no-fly zone or you'll be sadly short on produce.

Once established, they just need to be fed and watered regularly. Keep an eye on their progress and keep a slaughter date in mind. Cornish-cross grow so quickly that if you don't get them dressed on the weekend you planned, they may be in a different weight bracket by the time you get to it. You can always dress one out to see if you like the size, and if they're a bit small you can wait another week or so. In my experience, erring on the small size produces a juicier, more flavorful chicken.

As these grow to size, I'll provide more pictures.

Cheers,
B.

Duck coop, finished.

I used the few days when it was snowing to get all the battens cut out and get the door finished. I had expected to have time to make some hinges, but the weather cleared and so I bought a pair instead. The next time I'll make my own. The danger inherent in blacksmithing, though, is that the first time you make anything, you have to make the tools to make it-- tongs, jigs, punches, etc. It can make even something as simple as hinges take a very long time to make.

On Sunday, I squared the door up, nailed all the battens down, installed the hinges (and the door), temporarily blocked the escape hatch, and moved the new tenants in. I have to make a few repairs to some lath fence before they can go outside, but at this point the Campbells are too small to go out anyway.

Until next time.

Updated Flickr Gallery

Handmade Handle

This finished product.

Starting with 20" of 5/16" rod stock. First, the rod is heated to a bright orange and bent in half. Some might disagree with taking a heat this wide for the bend, but I'm going to twist it in the vise next.



The picture here isn't great because I had to demo what I was doing, take a pic, and then reheat it and start over. But what's going on here is that you take a full heat, quench the "eye" portion of the stock, then quickly clamp it in a vise, place another piece of rod through the eye like a propeller, and twist.





From here, I adjust the twist using a coffee can full of water to cool parts of the stock-- the parts that remain hot twist faster than the cooled stock and I can refine it until it's even. Once it's even, I forge weld the opposite end to form the other ring. This part is pretty hammer intensive and I couldn't manage to get the process photographed. Luckily, iForge has a great demonstration (see Forge Welding I) of what went on. I use regular old 20 Mule Team borax as a flux.

Here's an image of the twist after being flattened and beveled.



And now I bend it into the finished shape.



A traditional method of finishing steel is to heat it to a few hundred degrees and wipe the metal down with a mixture of linseed oil and beeswax. This is repeated until an opalescent black finish is obtained. The mixture helps to make the piece more corrosion resistant but is not recommended for indoor applications.

Mounting a post vise.

A post vise is an indispensable fixture for a blacksmith shop. Of course, I say this, but I've been doing without one for some time-- I bought my vise from Old World Anvils about a year and a half ago and it's been collecting dust since. It's not as if I haven't needed it, but it's been re-prioritized a few times. The idea behind a post vise (or leg vise as they're sometimes called) is that by design it can take abuse that would destroy a bench vise by transmitting force into the ground instead of into the jaws. It can be used for twisting stock-- a post on that soon-- holding jigs & tooling, etc.

I made the decision to put it together the last time I was out toolmaking at River Bend. I've seen post vises mounted a variety of ways, but the light one at River Bend was mounted on a piece of round plate-- when you don't need it, you can just roll it from place to place. This is huge convenience as post vises (like mine) weigh around 200# mounted.

One trip to Vernon Steel and one trip to Jonak's scrap yard and I had a 1/4" plate tool rest, a 2-1/2"x 2-1/2"x 1/4" upright, and a 30" circle cut from 1/2" plate. The fabrication was straightforward. The upright was squared and tack-welded to the tool rest. I then flipped the entire assembly, made a few calculations so that when mounted the post on the vise would strike center on the plate, and completed another square and tack. Using the vise itself as a template, I marked a few holes, drilled it out, and mounted the whole thing with 3/8" bolts and lock washers.

Unable to resist the temptation to use it right away, I began work on a handle for the hatch portion of the duck coop.

Delay of game.

Due to the unforeseen circumstances previously mentioned, I've had to suspend construction for a minute.